Rocklands

I have been in the area of Clanwilliam, South Africa for almost a week now and have been adjusting to the culture quite quickly. The most difficult thing to adjust to is the temperature inside our house, which is always around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I have been able to get plenty of good food at the local grocery store and I brought pretty much everything I need (accept some extra warm layers would be nice). Each of the climbing areas that we have been to in Rocklands so far have been very different. The first day we went to Roadside and it was so busy it reminded me almost of Flagstaff mountain in Boulder, CO, except for the rock was a million times better. The second day we went to 8 Day Rain and pretty much every boulder we came across was chalked up and graded. It was a short walk from the car and the parking area was easy to navigate. The third day we went to lower 8 Day Rain. This area hasn’t been explored much. Our car couldn’t even make it up most of the road so we had to park mid-way up and walk the remainder. We stumbled upon a great warm up boulder that had some sweet moderate lines as well. Then we continued on to an area that Paul had previously been to that had been established by Wills Young. My skin was hurting from all the crimping I had done the previous day so it was my rest day. After the boys did some climbing we set off to explore the area. We unfortunately didn’t find anything that hadn’t already been found previously. The following day was cloudy and raining off and on so we went to explore the sector around Livin’ Large. We found the boulder and a bunch of other beautiful boulders surrounding it but most of the boulders were unfortunately blank or extremely easy. I’m excited to check out the other climbing areas that Rocklands has to offer!